Commercial and residential indoor heating is dependant on a number of factors including the number of rooms to be heated, room sizes, ambient temperatures, a rooms ability to retain heat, geographical location, room exposure, amount of windows, and-so forth. Despite the claimed efficiency of a heating system, the above mentioned factors can cause any structure to have heating problems or temperature variations.
Modern heating systems use forced air directed past a heating element before delivery into the room. Forced Air allows for simultaneous heating of multiple rooms as controlled by a single temperature regulator. Thus, actual air distribution is by manual vent control of individual registers. Improper register placement will lead to large temperature variations and attempts to heat a single room will directly affect the remaining rooms.
Hot water radiator heaters are also well known in the art. However, despite the length of time the hot water radiators have been in use, they remain archaic, unsightly, and bulky items requiring a large surface area for proper heat convection. Relying upon circulation of air within the room to raise the room temperature, the large surface area required leaves a permanent obstruction within a room and typically causes the area nearest the radiator to generate the most heat. For this reason, radiator placement is typically placed near, if not beneath, a window which is considered the ideal position for reading chair placement. In addition, the water used to circulate through the radiator may be super heated which can cause scalding to unsuspecting individuals or make it uncomfortable for the individual seated near the radiator.
Relying upon the benefits of hot water heating, baseboard heaters became commonplace to eliminate the single radiator. The baseboard heater is positioned along the base of a wall and allows for individual room regulation. To overcome the small size of baseboard heaters, finned pipes were employed to increase surface space and electric heating elements were also employed. However, both types of baseboard heaters were unsightly room additions that still limited furniture placement next to the wall. Further, electric heating elements provide an area for dust carbonization resulting in soot deposits which cause wall streaking.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,453 discloses a self regulating electric baseboard heater. The heater utilizes a space saving design that does not inhibit placement of furniture. However, a disadvantage to the electric heater is the side effects of electromotive force produced by the use of electricity. Since baseboard heaters are located along the floor of the room, small children will inevitably play within feet of the electrical heaters causing unacceptable health risks.
Therefore, what is lacking in the art is a heating system that provides the benefits of hot fluid heat systems utilizing a small amount of space currently available only with electrically operating baseboards.